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Big Book Podcast: Johnny Got His Gun

Back to High School with Dalton Trumbo

Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. 

Season 4, Ep.3: "Johnny Got His Gun"

“Johnny Got His Gun” is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by American novelist Dalton Trumbo and published in September 1939. There have been radio, stage and screen adaptations of the novel, including Trumbo’s own 1971 film, and Metallica recorded a song – titled One – based on the book. In March of 1940, the book was serialized in the Daily Worker, which was published by the Communist Party USA - to which Trumbo belonged. For people on the political left, including the American Communist Party, the book became a rallying point in their opposition to involvement in World War II. But when Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941, Trumbo and his publishers decided to suspend reprinting the book until the end of the war – so long as the US stayed allied with the Soviet Union.

Episode Links

Tell us what YOU think about this book, or anything else you’re reading, in our Facebook group, or talk to us on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag. If you’d like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page on the Arlington Public Library website.

We're Reading and Watching

Oral History: Anhthu Lu

Finding Home Away from Home

Arlington Voices the Oral History Collection

Oral histories are used to understand historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of real people’s personal experiences.

Anhthu Lu was born in Vietnam and immigrated to Arlington after the fall of Saigon in 1975. From roughly 1975-1980, the U.S. population of Vietnamese immigrants - many of whom were refugees - had grown from 15,000 to 245,000.

At the same time, the Clarendon neighborhood transformed from a declining shopping destination to a supportive and bustling Vietnamese enclave that became known as "Little Saigon," brimming with stores that provided both imported goods and a sense of community for Vietnamese-Americans.

Vietnam Center in Little Saigon, 1980

In a 2016 interview, Lu described the harrowing account of her family's escape from Saigon, as well as the difficult journey from resettlement camps in the Philippines to become settled in Arlington.

In the following excerpt, Lu talks about her reaction to Little Saigon and the positive affect that it had on her as a young refugee:

Narrator: Anhthu Lu
Interviewer: Kim O'Connell
Date: March 16th, 2016

AL: Our eyes lit up. We went in there, and for the first time, you can hear the Vietnamese language and see the Vietnamese products, and things that we know, and things that we need, and things that we knew all our lives. I saw the fish sauce, and the rice paper, and all of the spices and stuff like that. We were like, "so there will be a chance we'll have Vietnamese food again."

The name "Little Saigon" didn't enter our mind until Little Saigon in Southern California started to come up, and then that became like a trademark for wherever the Vietnamese-Americans are, and it became Little Saigon. But at that time, we just called it the Vietnamese market. So at the end of the week, "Are you going to the Vietnamese market?" And it's understood that once you go out there, you have more chances to run into all your friends and family... it's become an oriental area for the Vietnamese people to go...And you can speak in Vietnamese, and totally feel like you're in Vietnam.

It felt really safe. It's like something that you know, and so you're comfortable with it. You feel like, "Oh, if I go there, that's my town." Home away from home. Once you feel that, you start to feel like you're already established here, and you've started to feel comfortable. And from there, you open the door out to bring in more of the way of life here in the US, and the way of thinking...For people like my parents or older people to go there and they have such a language barrier, that they feel more comfortable in an enclave of just Vietnamese. When they go there and start feeling comfortable, they can start speaking a little bit of English here and there, and they start to feel like, "Oh, I'm opening up more to take in a different culture than what's mine."

 

You can find the entire transcript in the Center for Local History - VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.12 no.13: Book a Research Appointment.

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

Video: Author Talk with Mike Curato

Author of “Little Elliot”

Watch now: https://youtu.be/LI64sMbM6jc

Arlington Public Library welcomed Graphic Novelist and Illustrator, Mike Curato, to discuss his body of work, books, his process and journey. Curato is the author and illustrator of everyone’s favorite polka-dotted elephant, “Little Elliot.” This book series has won several awards and has been translated into over ten languages. Mike has the pleasure of illustrating and contributing to other titles by other authors. Mike has won several awards and more recently, his debut young adult graphic novel, “Flamer”, was awarded the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Young Adult and the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award for Middle Grade/Young Adult.

Recorded June 7, 2023.

Big Book Podcast: Things Fall Apart

Back to High School with Chinua Achebe

Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. 

Season 4, Ep.2: "Things Fall Apart"

For this episode we read the 1958 novel by debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. The novel became the first work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series in the UK, starting in 1962. “Things Fall Apart” is the first book in Achebe’s trilogy about African history, and has been read by high schoolers for generations as the archetypal modern African novel in English. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa, is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world, and continues to be listed on included on “most important books” lists whenever they’re published.

Episode Links

Tell us what YOU think about this book, or anything else you’re reading, in our GoodReads or Facebook groups, or talk to us on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag. If you’d like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page on the Arlington Public Library website.

We're Reading

Big Book Podcast: Pride & Prejudice

Back to High School with Jane Austen

Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. 

Season 4, Ep.1: "Pride & Prejudice"

For season four we're going back to school with books we read - or didn't read - in high school. We started with "Pride & Prejudice," by Jane Austen. Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. So if you’re not into that kind of thing, read the text first and come back later.

Episode Links

Tell us what YOU think about this book, or anything else you’re reading, in our GoodReads or Facebook groups, or talk to us on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag. If you’d like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page on the Arlington Public Library website.

We're Reading

Video: Authenticity in Native Literature and Film

With Dr. Devon A. Mihesuah, Author, Professor, and Native Advocate

Watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBd2X5yMOWg

Dr. Mihesuah discusses the importance of authenticity in Native literature and film. She references her own novels and food books, while also highlighting popular books and films written by those who claim to be Native and are not and do not use Native speakers nor writers.

Recorded November 15, 2022.

 

Video: History of the American Nazi Party in Arlington

With Local Author and Historian Charlie Clark

Watch now: https://youtu.be/2m-9t8UznbQ

Since the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the threat of renewed political agitation by neo-Nazis has haunted public safety officials. There may be some lessons to be learned by looking into our own local history.

Why did George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American Navy veteran, choose Arlington County as his base of operations for his racist and anti-Semitic American Nazi Party?  This and other questions are answered in Clark’s illustrated talk, presented in partnership with the Center for Local History.

A longtime journalist in the Washington, D.C. area, Charlie Clark writes the weekly “Our Man in Arlington” column for the Falls Church News-Press. He has just published his fifth book, a memoir of adolescence titled “My Gap Year–Reinterpreted.” Last year he published “George Washington Parke Custis: A Rarefied Life in America’s First Family,” with McFarland Books. With the History Press, he has published “Lost Arlington County, Arlington County Chronicles,” and “Hidden History of Arlington County.” In July 2019, he retired as senior correspondent for Government Executive Media Group, part of Atlantic Media. He previously has worked as an editor or writer for The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Time-Life Books, Tax Analysts and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He lives in East Falls Church with his wife Ellen.

 

Big Book Podcast: Holmes Trio

Revisting Sherlock Holmes with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Sherry Thomas

Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. So if you’re not into that kind of thing, read the books first and come back later.

Ep.9: "Holmes Trio"

For this episode we read both Maria Headley’s translation of the Old English epic poem "Beowulf" and “The Mere Wife,” Headley's 2015 retelling of Beowulf, which is set in present-day New York.

Share your thoughts about this book, or anything else you’re reading, in our Facebook group, or on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag.

If you’d like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page.

Episode Links

We're Reading

Big Book Podcast: Beowulf / The Mere Wife

Revisting Beowulf with Maria Headley

Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. So if you’re not into that kind of thing, read the books first and come back later.

Ep.8: "Beowulf & The Mere Wife"

For this episode we read both Maria Headley’s translation of the Old English epic poem "Beowulf" and “The Mere Wife,” Headley's 2015 retelling of Beowulf, which is set in present-day New York.

Share your thoughts about this book, or anything else you’re reading, in our Facebook group, or on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag.

If you’d like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page.

Episode Links

We're Reading

Upcoming Books:

Video: Melissa Márquez, Shark Scientist

Author of the “Wild Survival” Kids’ Adventure Series

Watch now: https://youtu.be/f_-gQ2tX4GQ

Márquez is a marine science education expert, currently finishing her doctoral degree at Curtin University. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Mexico, Melissa has worked at the forefront of marine science education and communication for over a decade, hard at work combatting the misinformation that’s rampant in ecological fields — and paving the way for Latina women like her in science.

Márquez is also the author of the “Wild Survival” kids’ adventure series.

 

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